Tag: short stories

Every week I share which ARCs I’ve picked up from Edelweiss or Netgalley.

Netgalley

A Conjuring of Assassins by Cate Glass

I enjoyed the first of this series about an exiled courtesan who’s forced to babysit her troublemaker brother. It turned into a heist plot and man, do I love a magic heist(see my love of the movie Now You See Me. I’m excited to see what’s next for the group. It isn’t complicated world building so it’s great for those nights where I just want to lose myself in the adventure of it.

Pub date: February 4, 2020

Laughter at the Academy by Seanan McGuire

This is me telling you that Subterranean Press is putting out a collection of short stories by Seanan McGuire and you need to go pre-order it. Seanan has a gift for the short story where she packs a punch in just a short amount of words. Or she’ll send you hiding under your bed in terror. It’s obviously a gift. This also releases on Halloween so it’s an omen.

Pub date: October 31, 2019

Edelweiss

Deal With the Devil by Kit Rocha

There’s no cover announced for this one yet. I love Kit Rocha’s romance series, and this is the first in their SFF series pubbed by Tor. I admit, I’m a little over halfway into it and…it feels more on the romance side of it still. I don’t know. Maybe it’s me. It’s still a fun book and I’m excited to see what it means to be a Mercenary Librarian.

Pub date: May 20, 2020

The Borgia Confessions by Alyssa Palombo

I have a confession. I’ll read all the books about the Borgias or the Tudors. They are the tabloid trash fires of their time, just with more poisonings. It’s always interesting to see what lore or suppositions the author is going to play with. Was there incest afoot in the Borgia household? Did Cesar kill his older brother?

Pub date: February 11, 2020

The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune

Another cover not announced because this is another Tor publication and we’re a bit of the game. This is a new to me author although he’s been around and has won the LAMBDA for best Gay Romance. I am interested to see his foray into SFF. The premise sounds fascinating. Magical creature children on an island. I’m listening.

I don’t usually do reviews, but I might be changing that and this was a great book to maybe start the trend. I’m not going to waste time with bad reviews, so I’ll be only posting the books I really loved. I read Difficult Women both as a print galley as well as in digital format. It’s out January 3rd! Go get it.

The women in Roxane Gay’s recent short story collection are indeed difficult women. They are real women. They are multidimensional and flawed. As usual, Gay is able to use her talent to give distinctive voices to each woman in their respective stories. Once again I’m floored by how visceral her writing is, in the best way possible. These short stories make you feel a barrage of emotions, from discomfort to grief, to pity, to empathy and everything in between.

Every week I’m going to jump on here and talk about the week’s books. So let’s get to it shall we?

What are you currently reading? I’m currently reading The Crown’s Game by Evelyn Skye. I’m not loving it, but I’m not hating it. I admit to being a bit biased since the concept of the book is two magicians competing using their magic. Sounds a bit like The Night Circus and in my opinion, the latter did it with more imagery and heart. So far, I’m not feeling very interested in any of the characters. I’m disappointed because I wanted to love it. I’m also reading Last Call at the Nightshade Lounge by Paul Krueger. I’m only a few chapters in, but I’m really loving it. A Chinese-American protagonist, alcohol created superpowers, creepy things in the night? What’s not to love?

What did you recently finish reading? I finished a few recently. The Great 2016 Challenge has been working pretty well for me. The most recently finished wasThe Star-Touched Queenby Roshabi Chokshi, which I found to be really well written with lovely imagery and an engaging plot. I also read two sad books,What Lies Between Usby Naomi Munaweera andAn Unrestored Womanby Shobhaa Rao respectively. I expecting a sad read, but the content of that sadness was something I wasn’t ready for. I don’t want to give things away, just that these normally would be books I avoid. They were wonderfully written so I don’t want to dissuade anyone from reading it. It was just the subject matter. I have to say especially for An Unrestored Woman, I loved the way it was written as paired short stories. My main complaint with short stories is that I want more, this fulfilled that need. I also finished a nonfiction with Pistols and Petticoats: 175 Years of Lady Detectives in Fact and Fictionby Erika Janik. On the whole it was filled with a lot of cool facts and references, but it could have been so much better. It seemed to focus mostly on white ladies only and I think the author would have benefited from looking at comics as well for her examples of lady detectives. Especially to show the difference between the roles of the lady detectives in the beginning with the ones in modern times. Jessica Jones in comparison to Nancy Drew? Lots of food for thought there.

What did you recently finish reading? I just finished First Women: The Grace and Power of America’s Modern First Ladies by Kate Andersen Brower. I wasn’t overly thrilled with it. It came off super gossipy and sort of catty. Brower used a lot of anonymous sources saying one first lady said awful things about another first lady. The cattiness seemed to take up most of the book instead of really focus on the women themselves and their lives. Or she would use one First Lady’s faults to bump up another which is a serious no-no in my book. I also finished Before We Visit the Goddess, the latest by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. I adored Mistress of Spices, Queen of Dreams, and Leaving Yuba City: Poems. When I reviewed it for Litsy, I kept going between Pick or So-So. It just felt a little underdeveloped for me, but on the whole I did enjoy it. I’m a big fan of mother/daughter stories.

What do you think you’ll read next?An Unrestored Woman, a debut novel by Shobha Rao that I picked up at the Bay Area Book Fest last weekend. The bookseller promised me a tragic story and it feels like I’m ready for one right now. Also for my fantasy needs, I’m going to read The Star-Touched Queen by Roshabi Chokshi. I have heard such wonderful things.

Every week I’m going to jump on here and talk about the week’s books. So let’s get to it shall we?

What are you currently reading? I’m reading The Children’s Homeby Charles Lambert in a probably doomed attempt to read all my 2016 hardbacks before they go to paperback. So far, I’m into it.

What did you recently finish reading? Just finished Ancient, Ancient by Kiini Ibura Salaam for the book club.Wasn’t overly fond of it. I also finally finished All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders. I’m putting it solidly in the so-so category. I didn’t hate it, but it also didn’t blow my socks off. The characters all felt particularly overwrought. I know there was some crazy environmental stuff going on, but wow. Also right before publishing this post I read The Earl Next Door by Charis Michaels. I love renovation romances, but I was disappointed there wasn’t more of the renovation in this one. The overall plot was pretty good though so I’ll forgive it this time.

I’m trying to get more into the habit of writing on here and thought this blog hop might be a great way to do it. Every week I’m going to try to jump on here and talk about the week’s books. So let’s get to it shall we?

What are you currently reading? I’m working on a story a day from Ancient, Ancientby Kiini Ibura Salaam for my book club. It’s going very slowly. The prose is not my usual so I’m taking my time breathing it in.

What did you recently finish reading? Truthwitch by Susan Dennard. I love the portrayal of a friendship between two teen girls, but the book didn’t blow me away. There was no real interest for me in the main plot, which really didn’t seem like it was much of anything.

What do you think you’ll read next? The Crown’s Gameby Evelyn Skye. I was lucky enough to meet Evelyn through a mutual friend and I was able to go to her book launch of this YA fantasy novel about two magicians that are dueling to the death in Imperial Russia. Off the cuff it sounds like a YA version of The Night Circus meets A Darker Shade of Magic, both books that I loved so hard. I can’t wait to jump into this story.

February. The month where I declared I would read a bunch of essay and short story collections. I did! I almost cleared my physical shelves. I never actually got to any on my Kindle. C’est la vie. How many did I actually get to, you’re probably asking. Seven. Four essay and three short story collections. And knowing me as you do, that six books is not all I accomplished, you’re now asking, what else did you read? Five nonfiction books…and a lot of romance novels. Also there were a couple lit fics in there as well and a graphic novel. I can’t help it. I wouldn’t go as far as to say I am giving up on short stories and essays as I enjoyed the ones I did read, but they definitely aren’t my one true love.

Unaccustomed Earthby Jhumpa Lahiri. I love Lahiri. So much. This collection of short stories was no different. I actually forget how much I love her, then read something of hers and am blown away. My favorite were the three linked stories at the end. Heartbreaking, but poignant.

Ghost Summer: Storiesby Tananarive Due. It’s been forever since I’ve been scared by a book. While not at the level of nightmare inducing, I was definitely creeped by Due’s stories. From ghosts to zombies, the stories were excellent. Ghost Summer, the title story, was one I’ll think about for awhile.

Nakedby David Sedaris. My first Sedaris. I’ve been wanting to get started. I wouldn’t say I was disappointed, but maybe Sedaris isn’t for me. There were some funny things, but then some that missed entirely for me.

When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris. I decided to get them all done at once (I still have Me Talk Pretty One Day, but I’ll save it for now). Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls was better than this one. I found myself drifting off pretty easily.

How to be a Heroine: Or, What I’ve Learned from Reading Too Much: by Samantha Ellis. This was recommended to me from a bookseller. I wanted to love it. A lot of the fault is going to land on me here, since I haven’t read most of the classics she mentioned. I was hoping to get some extra insight so that maybe I would want to? This only happened in a couple situations. I’ll be honest, I skimmed the second to the last two essays, I just got kind of bored. However, she ended strong with the last one.

As you know, I’m really fond of theme reading. It clears my bookshelves and helps me get some genres read that I’ve been meaning to try. This month I thought I’d jump on my short story and essay collections. I have been accumulating them apparently. I’m going to try for the ones I own and if I get through those I’ll reach out to what I have on Scribd and get some recommendations from you guys (throw them in the comments, I’ll try to get to them). I read 34 books in January and I don’t think I have that many essay/short story collections on my shelf so it’s possible. I’m not only reading these, since The Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee is coming out tomorrow! (Side note: This took all my willpower not to capitalize all of that and add all the exclamation points.)

Here’s my physical shelf.

Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights by Salman Rushdie

Trigger Warning by Neil Gaimain

Nocturne by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri

When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris

Naked by David Sedaris

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls by David Sedaris

How to be a Heroine: Or What I’ve Learned by Reading Too Much by Samantha Ellis

I scoured my TBR shelves and decided I had a wealth of books to choose from so that being said tomorrow is going to be an all print books all the time day. You know I love my ebooks, but my print books are starting to pile up so it’s time to make some room.

I definitely won’t get to all of these, but I like to have a bit to choose from. I decided to go with short story and essay collections, as well as some historical fiction which usually are quick reads for me as long as I don’t fall down the rabbit hole of looking up the real people on wiki as I read. I threw in a YA book and a few just shot books. More bang for my buck really.

From bottom left

Inferno by Dan Brown

The Rook by Daniel O’Malley

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

The Book of Madness and Cures by Regina O’Melveny

Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson (hidden under Moore)

Sacré Bleu by Christopher Moore

Henna House by Nomi Eve

Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self by Danielle Evans

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck

The Clockwork Scarab by Colleen Gleason

The Emperor’s Children by Claire Messud

Pearl of China by Anchee Min

When Women Were Birds by Terry Tempest Williams

Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn (hidden under Gaiman)

Honor by Elif Shafak

The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Vanessa and Her Sister by Priya Parmar

The Calligrapher’s Daughter by Eugenia Kim

Any recommendations for books off the piles that should get higher priority? Any that you are also wanting to read?